A very good sci-fi/action film which had much more depth to it than I originally thought

Rating: 7/10 (19 December 2013)

Pacific Rim came as a pleasant surprise to me as I went in with expectations of a mindless, but enjoyable action film. What surprised me is that PR wasn't just an enjoyable film with plenty of action, but the story was also much better than I expected.
The first 15 minutes are basically a narrative by Raleigh Beckett (Charlie Hunnam) who explains the uprising of the Kenjiu - giant beasts that rise from the sea who will destroy anyone or anything that stands in their way. In order to counter the problem, large robots known as 'Jaegers' have been constructed and each Jaeger is operated by 2 pilots. When a Kaiju attack occurs in Alaska, 2 pilots Raleigh and Yancy (who are brothers)are sent out to contain the Kaiju attack. However, when the Jaeger fail to prevent the Kajiu attack (which sadly resulted in Yancy's death), Raleigh's marshal Stacker Pentecost is told by the government that they no longer want his team to use Jaegers and tell Pentecost that they want a wall building to keep the Kajiu out. When the wall becomes breached, Pentecost recruits Raleigh and asks him to accompany him to the Jaeger station in Hong Kong to try and destroy the Kajiu once and for all.
The interesting aspect with this is that both pilots have to be emotionally similar in order to operate the 'Jaegers' effectively - this automatically allows the audience to really get into the characters and feel each of their emotions. This point becomes most prevalent in an emotive and tense scene between Raleigh and his new co-pilot Mako when they both share a 'mind melt' in the Jaeger. This also gives Guillermo Del Toro an opportunity to really show off his directional flair - check out the drift sequences and the mind melt sequences as they really are a feast for the eyes. This helps to give depth to a great array of characters.
Next thing that is great are the visuals - the cinematography & special effects for PR are simply mind blowing. Of course, gorgeous visuals & excellent cinematography alone are not enough to carry a film. This is the style aspect of filmmaking. In order for film's of this nature to work they must also have the 'substance' element - compelling story and fleshed out characters. For me, this is why PR works as it balances the 2 elements perfectly. Many films of this nature focus way too much on action to try to cover up a weak story, but PR spends a lot of time developing the story whilst still containing plenty of action to keep fans of the genre happy. Credit for balancing both aspects clearly need to go to writer Travis Beacham and director Guillermo Del Toro.
Whilst there is plenty to praise PR about, there were a couple of minor niggles I had with the film; the dialogue at times was a bit cheesy, there were occasions when the camera work was a bit sloppy (particularly towards the beginning). Also the characters of Newt and Gottlieb whilst being relevant to the overall story, it's quite clear that they were introduced to provide some kind of comic relief, but to me they came off as a really bad 'double act'. I found their characters more annoying than anything else.
That being said, these niggles were very minor and did not stop me from enjoying Pacific Rim. I found it captivating from start to finish and was really pleased that the writers have created more than just a mindless action flick.